Friday, January 27, 2017

Microstory 505: New Mission to Keres Most Ambitious Yet

The Director of the Confederate Aerospace Department has officially announced a new voyage to the third planet in the solar system, tentatively scheduled for an 1834 launch. All missions to Keres thus far have involved exclusively scientists and researchers, and have lasted for stints no longer than two years. Director Ansaldi has made it clear that he believes space colonization to be the next logical step in human destiny. Ansaldi had this to say: “Keres doesn’t have everything a planet needs to support life, but it has enough. It has a magnetic field not unlike ours, and a thin atmosphere composed of the right gases in the wrong ratio. With work and time, it could be potentially just as habitable as our homeworld.” The work Ansaldi is referring to includes maneuvering asteroids and building megastructures the likes we’ve never seen before. And by time, he means a few hundred years. As technology advances, so does the speed and efficiency of any given task. However, something as large as a planet still needs a great deal of time to acclimate to any changes, not matter how wondrous. It is for this reason that CAD has begun plans to form a permanent settlement on Keres. Ansaldi’s assistant, and son, Deputy Director Ansaldi explained this further in an interview following the announcement. “The amount of effort and patience required to terraform an entire planet is daunting to anyone who won’t live past 500. In order to encourage this change, people must be given an incentive to begin something that won’t come to fruition until long after they die. One way we’ve decided to do this is to create a new nation. Keresites will be given full autonomy, along with Confederate privileges, from the get-go. This will be their home, and they will want to make it better.” Some have spoken out against this proposition, calling it manipulative. Noted scientist and television personality, Ivor Leonardson, a.k.a. Fancy Leo, microblogged on the topic during the conference. “they wnt 2go to ker? Sounds great if you wnt 2die there & nvr see ur family again & build giant reflectors da rest of ur life & not hav air.” Leonardson is referring to space mirrors that would need to be built to compensate for a lack of sufficient sunlight on the surface of Keres, particularly early on in the endeavor. It is so far too early to tell whether any of this will bear fruit, or even if CAD will be able to wrangle up enough cash for the project. It is as of yet unclear who will be taking part in the mission, but evidence points to some sort of lottery combined with desirable vocations.

No comments :

Post a Comment